Priorities Part 6: Your Achilles Heel

This is the 6th and last installment of the Priorities series. To catch up on any installment(s) that you missed scroll to the bottom and click the appropriate link(s) at the bottom of this article.

Now that you’ve been at it for a while, you may have noticed that certain things trip you up as you’re trying to reach your goal(s). These things might be habits, limiting beliefs, distractions, conflicting goals, or any number of other things. Whatever they are, you need to know about them so you can create a plan to either keep them out of your way or deal with them as they arise.

If you don’t know what’s tripping you up, you need to figure it out. You can start by asking your spouse, significant other, &/or close friends for their honest opinion as to what sorts of thing(s) might be tripping you up. Chances are good that they’ve noticed the same thing(s) tripping you up time and again. Then you need to do some deep soul-searching on your own and add to their list.

To that end, a few things that are often an Achille’s Heel when working towards a goal are:

Low self-esteem/low self-confidence

Fear – of failure, of success, of the unknown (just for starters)

Procrastination

Limiting beliefs

Money is the root of all evil

Rich people are corrupt

Money doesn’t grow on trees

People who aren’t busy all the time are lazy

I’m no good at _____

The only way to ____ is to ____

Habits

Say yes to every request

Engage in an activity out of boredom even if it’s not that enjoyable (you could also call this a distraction)

Put everyone else’s needs before your own

Pick up your phone whenever you have a few minutes (or seconds) of downtime

Stress eating

Distractions

TV

Phone calls

Text messages

Social Media

Games

Outside noise – traffic, construction, crowds, etc.

Inside noise – other people’s music or conversations, etc.

Interuptions

Conflicting goals – Check your priorities. Does one seem to conflict with another? If so, you need to rethink or reword one of them.

Using non-affirmative language

Don’t

Shouldn’t

Won’t

Make a list of every possible issue, not just from the list above but from your own reflection, as well as feedback you’ve asked family and friends for. Let the list sit for several days. Then take a good hard look at the list and carefully consider each item. If it’s a possible problem, leave it and move on to the next one. If it truly isn’t getting in the way of this particular goal, cross it off and move on to the next. Continue this process for each item on your list.

It’s super important to be brutally honest during this process. Now is NOT the time to stroke your own ego and insist that you don’t procrastinate, or that you don’t stress eat because it’s not stress eating if it’s healthy food, right? Remember, I’m not asking you to admit your weakness to anyone but yourself, so you can do this.

Once you have your list of weaknesses that are tripping you up for each priority, you are empowered because now you can create a plan to deal with each one. I can’t tell you how to do that because it’s going to be different for each person. I can tell you this, however…. it may take several tries to master each of your Achille’s heels, but you CAN do it.